In general, a series of processes for forming a resist pattern on a substrate such as a semiconductor wafer (hereinafter, referred to as ‘wafer’) is performed by using a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus in which an exposure device is connected via an interface block to a coating/developing device for coating and developing resist liquid.
Meanwhile, a recent trend towards a faster throughput of the exposure device requires an enhanced processing capability of the coating/developing device matching with the faster throughput capability of the exposure device. As for a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus having a coating/developing device of an improved processing capability, for example, Japanese Patent No. 3337677 discloses a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus in which blocks for respectively accommodating therein modules before and modules after an exposure processing are vertically arranged to form the coating/developing device, each block being connected to an exposure device via an interface port. In the coating/developing device, each of the blocks has a longitudinal transferring passage through which a wafer is transferred, and along the transferring passage, a plurality of coating units are provided to face a plurality of thermal processing units, having the transferring passageway therebetween. Further, a transfer mechanism moving along the transferring passage transfers the wafer between the processing units. In a thus configured coating/developing device, the coating process and the developing process are separately performed and, therefore, a wafer transfer efficiency is enhanced, resulting in an improved wafer processing capability.
However, in the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 3337677, the longitudinal movement of the transfer mechanism on the transferring passage becomes increased, so that a large amount of particles can be generated from a guide rail along which the transfer mechanism moves longitudinally and a driving mechanism thereof. Thus generated particles may be scattered around the liquid processing units and the thermal processing units due to the movement of the transfer mechanism to thereby contaminate a wafer being processed and inflict damages to a resist pattern thereon.
To that end, Japanese Patent No. 3337677 suggests to install a partition wall between two vertically disposed adjacent blocks to separate them from each other and provide a filter for removing particles on the partition wall. However, in case a large amount of particles are generated along the transferring passage as described above, just forming a descending air flow as in the conventional semiconductor manufacturing apparatus is not enough to fully collect and remove the particles through the filter. Moreover, in case the filter is actually provided on the partition wall, a thickness of the partition wall becomes larger. Further, if the number of stacked blocks increases, the height of the apparatus becomes considerably increased, thereby making it difficult to perform a maintenance work thereof.